


you couldn't tell me enough (that you love me)

by searidings



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, kara is drunk and gay and unsubtle, lena luthor needed a hug 27 years ago and has continued to every day since, nia simply Does Not Vibe with basic economic theory and frankly neither do i, superfam dumbassery and dogpiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 06:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30084654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/searidings/pseuds/searidings
Summary: lena luthor needs so many hugs, but she'll settle for five at once.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 41
Kudos: 764





	you couldn't tell me enough (that you love me)

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from 'for island fires and family' by dermot kennedy

“C’mon, Luthor. We’ve all done it. Now it’s your turn.”

Alex’s voice is slurred, and she’s leaning so heavily into Kelly’s side on the couch that she’s practically horizontal. Her cheeks are flushed – a byproduct of the obscene quantities of alcohol consumed thus far – but her expression is dogged, determined.

“Yeah!” Nia crows from the floor, allowing Brainy to prop her upright when she sways dangerously. “Come on, Lena, it’ll be fun. Five minutes of our questions and you have to answer honestly. Totally n’completely honestly.”

Lena blanches. “I’m not sure—”

“You gotta!” Nia half-yells, then seems to catch herself under Brainy’s disapproving gaze. “I mean, you don’t _gotta,”_ she continues more quietly. “Only if you wanna. But s’good for us. It’s _fun._ Rebuilding trust. Open communication. S’right, isn’t it, Kelly?”

Kelly, the most sober of the group by a country mile, purses her lips. “I’m not sure this is _exactly_ what I had in mind when I suggested trust-building—”

“We’ve got the spirit,” Alex mumbles into her girlfriend’s shoulder as Nia slaps Brainy’s thigh, grinning. “No, s’ _better.”_

“I’m not sure it _is_ better,” Kara mumbles from her position on the floor, leaning against the armchair Lena’s sitting in. Her cheeks are still beet-red, a lingering reminder of her own turn in the honesty hot-seat during which she’d admitted – under much duress – to having had a crush on Simba the lion during her adolescence. Simba the _animated_ lion.

“You don’t have to,” she twists to murmur, chin propped on Lena’s knee as she stares up at her with earnest blue eyes. “Ignore them. You don’t have to do or say anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“No, it’s fine,” Lena says, to convince herself as much as the blonde currently tracing light patterns up and down Lena’s calf with her fingernails. “It’s just like truth or dare, except nobody will dare me to buy Fox News this time.”

She fixes Nia with a pointed look. The brunette at least has the good grace to look a little abashed.

“You already bought one media empire for a _friend,”_ Nia shrugs, and there’s a pointed significance to her tone that Lena flatly decides not to acknowledge. “What’s one more?”

Lena ignores her, distracted by the way Kara’s head has lolled so that her cheek rests against Lena’s thigh. Her wandering hand has slid up Lena’s calf to cup the back of her knee, and Lena struggles to remember the point she’d been attempting to make.

“It’s all good,” she smiles down at Kara’s furrowed brow, aiming for reassurance and praying she makes it. “Since I’ve heard about Kelly stealing a McDonald’s sign in college and Nia accidentally texting lingerie photos to her boss, the least I can do is return the favour.”

She swallows hard, squares her shoulders. “It’s just a game.”

_Just a game, just a game,_ she chants in her head as a constant reminder. She can handle a game. Even if it does require her own brutal honesty in front of people she’d once considered family but who, for a while there, had maybe almost definitely been prepared to kill her.

She bites the inside of her cheek hard, trying not to let her anxiety show. What the hell are they going to ask her? An awful lot of alcohol has been consumed tonight, and Alex and Nia in particular aren’t known for their tact and discretion at the best of times. Stomach twisting with nerves, she considers the sorts of thinly-veiled accusations that might come her way.

_Why did you use Kryptonite on Kara? How do you feel about finally living up to the Luthor name? Are you planning on mind-controlling all of humanity again in the near future?_

Lena digs her fingernails hard into her denim-clad thigh, trying to school her features into a semblance of open neutrality. Trying to fathom a way to get through this game with both her newfound oath of honesty and her fragile heart intact.

Kara’s eyes fall on Lena’s tensed fingers and she pries them out of the meat of her thigh, lacing them with her own and giving Lena’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Lena smiles weakly down at her as Nia sets a timer on her phone.

“Okay, five minutes on the clock,” the brunette slurs. “Go!”

For a moment, the room is deathly silent. Lena’s heart is in her throat, her stomach down somewhere around her ankles as she waits for the inevitable laundry list of her many sins to be hung out to dry.

One second, the only sound is the ticking of Kara’s ridiculously gaudy goldfish wall clock. The next, the floodgates open.

“Would you allow me to partner with you on L-Corp’s newest black-body radiation project?” Brainy asks at the exact moment Nia yells, “Will you take me shopping?”

Lena blinks, a little blindsided. Nia misinterprets her hesitance, backtracking so quickly her garbled speech is almost unintelligible. “I don’t mean _pay_ for me,” she huffs at Alex’s incredulous eyebrow raise, turning back to Lena. “I just mean, teach me how to dress. You always look so _good.”_

“I, um. Yes?” Lena manages, smiling at both Nia and Brainy as her alcohol-clouded brain tries to catch up with the unexpected turn of events. Satisfied in the first round of questioning, the group winds up for a second onslaught.

“Who’s the most famous person in your phone contacts?” Kelly smiles at her. “Apart from Supergirl, of course.”

“Are you richer than Elon Musk?” Nia chimes in. “Do you sleep on a bed of money? Actually, do you sleep at all?”

“What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done while drunk?” Alex smirks. “Is it worse than the time Kara convinced you to sing N*Sync karaoke with her?”

“I should like to learn how to fence,” Brainy says solemnly, intertwining his fingers with Nia’s. “It is a complex and highly-skilled activity requiring both strategic planning and an excellent understanding of mechanical physics, in addition to athleticism. It is thus the ideal means for me to, as Nia puts it, get some bounce in my buns. Would you be willing to practice with me?”

“If I eat one whole salad, will you come with me to try the new waffle place on Third?” That’s Kara, of course, blinking up at her big and angelic. “And promise not to order the healthiest thing on the menu?”

Nia narrows her eyes, smirking as she circles round for another go. “Is that your natural hair colour?”

Lena does her best to parry the volley of questions with smiles and nods and gasped-out answers before the next request hits her like a missile. It’s overwhelming in the best way, to be the centre of attention for _good,_ for once. The room is noisy and warm and every face around the coffee table is smiling at her and Lena thinks, maybe they’ll be okay, in the end. Maybe they’ll be okay, after all.

“Okay,” Nia drawls three minutes in, head pillowed in Brainy’s lap ever since she’d gotten too excited in her questioning and forgotten how to hold herself up. “You’re, like, a literal genius. If you can’t explain it to me, no one can.”

Kelly’s brow furrows. “I’m not sure this is the type of question—”

“No, I wanna know,” Nia huffs. “ _Leeeeeena_ , make it make sense! Like, why can’t they just print more money though? Then we could _all_ be billionaires.”

Lena frowns. “I mean, economics isn’t my specialty but I’m fairly sure that wouldn’t—”

“But _why_ not?” Nia insists. “Like, we can make money. We can just make it, so. Let’s make more.”

Lena glances helplessly around the room, but it seems she won’t be getting any support in this matter. Brainy and Kelly look too tired and/or drunk to be of any use in quelling Nia’s barrage of questions, while the Danvers sisters seem genuinely invested in hearing Lena’s answer.

“I think it’s a great plan,” Nia continues. “We just print money until we have enough. No more poverty. Yay!”

Lena winces at the incognizable logic, thanking God her college economics professor isn’t here to witness this trainwreck. “The price of everything would go up,” she tries weakly. “Inflation—”

“Okay,” Nia cuts her off, unperturbed. “But we create prices, right? We create markets. So let’s just, you know. Not.”

“Not?” Lena echoes feebly, despair mounting.

“Yeah,” Nia drawls, slapping her hand around blindly on the floor until her fingers find her beer bottle and she can take a long pull. “We made up money. We made up all of it. So let’s just, like. Un-make-up poverty. Print money for everyone!”

Lena’s mouth opens and closes hopelessly. She doesn’t even know where to begin. It’s so wrong, all of it, every single thing Nia has said. But she doesn’t have the slightest clue how to go about answering. At this point, she’s not even sure what the original question _was._ She’s not sure Nia is either.

Blessedly, Kara decides to once again utilise her almost preternatural ability to detect Lena’s inner turmoil, slapping a hand on the coffee table with finality. “No more money questions,” she only very slightly slurs, fixing her protégé with a firm stare. “You’re wasting all our time. Nia is banned from questions for one whole minute.”

She bangs her fist on the table again, a makeshift gavel. Nia pouts, slouching back into Brainy’s lap with a huff.

“I’ve passed my ruling; court is adjourned,” Kara says solemnly, pretzel crumbs shaking themselves free from her sweater as she addresses the room. “Someone else may take the stand.”

“Nia does not appreciate the personalised poetry I write for her,” Brainy sniffs, mock-glaring down at his girlfriend. “Lena, if I recite my most recent sonnet to you, would you tell me—”

“No!” Alex, Kara and Nia yell in unison. Lena shrugs apologetically as Brainy’s mouth snaps shut with a disgruntled click, his frown softening only when Nia reaches up to stroke a loving hand against his cheek.

“How much money do you spend on kale in a year?” Kara asks suddenly, eyes narrowed. “Is it more than my couch is worth, d’you think?”

Lena shrugs, and Kara’s face twists in horror. “More than the cost of my TV?”

Another shrug. Kara appears genuinely close to tears, eyes wide and lower lip trembling. “More than the cost of my apartment?”

Lena smiles and pats her cheek as Alex perks up, eyes gleaming. “Did you kill Morgan Edge?” she asks eagerly, drunkenness momentarily forgotten. “Is that why he just disappeared? Don’t worry, I promise I won’t tell anyone. In fact, I thought about doing it myself.”

Lena gapes, caught somewhere between laughter and outrage. “Did I—? No I did _not.”_

“Did Kara kill him for you?” Alex volleys without missing a beat. “And you’re covering for her? I swear I won’t arrest either of you. Scout’s honour.”

“You were never a Girl Scout,” Kara accuses, and Lena’s mouth drops open.

“ _That’s_ your problem with what she just said?”

Kara just shrugs amiably, scooting her way in between Lena’s legs so she can lean her head back in her lap, whining in the back of her throat until Lena reaches out a hand to card her fingers absentmindedly through her hair.

“Can you design me a suit that lets me fly?” Nia asks, ignoring Kara’s protests that her minute-long ban has not yet expired. “Not that I don’t love Supergirl piggybacking me home after a fight, but it would be way cooler if I could do it myself.”

“Um. I can try,” Lena offers, and the way the young woman beams at her makes her feel warm from head to toe.

The timer on Nia’s cell phone is ticking down, and with less than half a minute left Kelly leans forward suddenly, her expression gentle.

“I have a question for you,” she starts, and Lena braces herself. “What can we do to show you how much we appreciate you?”

Lena blinks. “I’m— sorry?”

Kelly’s lips curve up in a knowing smile. “I’m serious, Lena. I know it’s taken a lot for you to decide to work on re-strengthening your relationships with all of us. We’d have been lost without your help fighting your brother and honestly, we were all a little lost in general when you weren’t around.” Her eyes flick to Kara who nods emphatically, rolling her head to press a sloppy kiss to Lena’s thigh.

“Forgiveness and healing are a two-way street,” Kelly continues, and beneath the warmth of the therapist’s gentle attention Lena feels her eyes begin to mist over. “So, that’s my question. How can we make up for the pain we’ve caused you? How can we show you how much you mean to us?”

“Yeah,” Nia chimes in as Lena’s throat tightens against the hot sting of tears. “Do you have any inventions that stop people being stupid? Can you use it on all of us, so we never do anything that makes you want to leave us again?”

“How can I show you how sorry I am?” Alex asks quietly at the same moment Kara murmurs, “Do you think you’ll ever be able to forgive me?”

“We’re not trying to put any pressure on you,” Kelly cuts in, shooting a hard glance at both Danvers sisters who duck their heads in sync, suitably chastised. “You don’t have to say anything right now. But think about it, yeah?”

Lena nods because she can’t do anything else, throat closed over as she lifts her chin, trying to blink the gathering tears back into her lacrimal glands. The room falls quiet for a moment and the loving weight of the gazes fixed upon her is so overwhelming that Lena almost sobs in relief when Nia’s phone timer shatters the silence.

“Aw, nuts,” Nia pouts. “I had one more question!”

Sensing the way Lena stiffens, Kara shakes her head. “Nope. Finito. Adios, amigo.”

“But it was a really good one,” Nia complains. “I swear.”

“Nia, you’ve had your—” Kelly starts but Nia’s already yelling over her. “Can I hug you?”

Her earnest gaze roots Lena to the spot like a deer in the headlights and she’s barely nodded her acquiescence when Nia is rocketing unsteadily towards her. “Pile on!” she yells and the next thing Lena knows five pairs of arms are looping their way around her in various uncomfortable-looking contortions. Alex rests her chin on the crown of Lena’s head, Nia and Kelly taking a shoulder each while Brainy contents himself with patting the back of Lena’s hand comfortingly.

Kara has all but climbed into her lap, knees straddling Lena’s thighs as she presses her face to the crook of Lena’s neck, breath ghosting hot over her skin. The entire configuration is stiflingly warm and objectively uncomfortable and Lena’s pretty sure she has someone’s knee making a home in her kidney and at least two separate arms pulling painfully on her hair, and she’s not sure she’s ever been happier.

“Missed you,” Nia all but drools against Lena’s shoulder, head lolling as unconsciousness beckons. “Love you.”

Lena’s throat tightens again as the others repeat the sentiment, disembodied hands stroking over her hair, her back, her shoulders. She feels like the world’s most pampered house cat, petted and patted to within an inch of her life, and she’s just drunk enough that she never wants the sensation to end. Maybe she’ll start purring.

“Yeah,” Kara mumbles straight into Lena’s skin, her voice vibrating through Lena’s body and settling somewhere hot and deep. “Yeah. Missed you, Lena. Love you,” she hums, quiet and close. “I love you.”

Lena doesn’t know if the others overhear Kara’s whisper. In this moment, she doesn’t know anything at all, anything that exists outside of the blissful weight of Kara’s body atop her own, of Kara’s strong hands moulded tenderly to her hips, of Kara’s lips pressing warm and deliberate to the underside of her jaw.

Lena’s brain has vacated the premises entirely, along with her capacity to convert air into useable oxygen. Rendered immobile by more than just the five bodies pressing her into the armchair, she tugs one trapped arm free to fist tightly in the front of Kara’s sweatshirt.

One of Kara’s hands vacates its position on her hip and pries her fingers free only to intertwine them with her own and squeeze tightly, and somehow the gesture feels like even more earnest a declaration than her words had.

It feels like a chance. It feels like a promise.

Lena squeezes back.

“So,” Nia slurs next to her ear and Lena jumps. She’d momentarily forgotten they weren’t alone; an impressive feat considering her current bottom-of-the-hug-pile position.

Nia’s head lolls on her shoulder, her eyelashes fluttering shut. “Not that this isn’t an adorable moment,” she drawls as she pats Lena’s cheek clumsily, and Lena almost loses an eye to her flailing fingers. “But are we gonna talk about how I just solved world poverty, or…?”

**Author's Note:**

> comments are my main source of protein if you are that way inclined <3
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr: [searidings](https://searidings.tumblr.com/)


End file.
